Iwasaki's new painting Palarilavelorimokkie will be displayed at his favorite coffee house in town, Parlour Coffee, proudly owned and operated by his friend Nils Vik. The aim of this project is to bring warmth to Winnipeg's [in]famous cold winter days with the painting, great coffee, and smiles of people who gather there. Come on board; share your laughter and smile!

Buns from Jonnies Sticky Buns will be served as complimentary at the opening reception. Yum yum. It's worth coming even just for the buns :-)

January 27 - March 10, 2012

Opening reception:Friday, January 27, 5:00pm - 7:00pmNOTE: Iwasaki will be present at the reception.

Shortly after 7:30pm a violinist and composer John Racaru will perform an eight-minute solo violin composition, which he composed based on Iwasaki's painting called Heatness.Below are the titles of descriptive movements in the composition:

1. The Wind of the Sea
2. Children of Soul
3. Afternoon
4. The Conversation
5. Samurai
6."Heatness"
7. The Birds
8. High in the Sky

Iwasaki is participating to VERY FUN PARK 2011, an annual contemporary art exhibition that spreads out into different urban spaces in East District in Taipei, Taiwan, organized by Fubon Art Foundation. His work will be exhibited in two different locations:

Ruby presents captivating work at the nexus of contemporary visual culture and art that is connected by the underlying theme of otherworldliness. Whether in the form of fantastically realistic photography, alluring illustration and painting, impossible spaces, or bizarre sculpture, the 65 featured artists explore the direction of visual expression for the time to come.

Elliott Louis Gallery joins this year's Drawn Festival [in Vancouver, Canada] with a two-person exhibition that brings together iconic charcoal drawings of trees by New York artist Mary Hrbacek and the whimsically surreal drawings in thread by Winnipeg's Takashi Iwasaki.

To Mary Hrbacek a tree is a thing of spiritual sustenance and renewal. Her trees endowed with human-like qualities become the embodiment of mankind's condition: the rising sap is the spirit of life, sexuality and regeneration, the barren winter branches and broken limbs foretell of immanent ecological disaster, disease and death. Hrbacek's trees exert a powerful emotional influence.

The biomorphic forms and imaginative abstractions that Takashi Iwasaki has envisioned demonstrate a light-hearted playful sense of humor and optimism. With an intense use of color, fanciful shapes, and a wide array of media, Iwasaki has created a body of provocative work using pencil, paint, collage and embroidery that is overflowing with imagination, intense beauty, and elegance.

While stylistically and thematically diverse both Hrbacek and Iwasaki create works with the belief that art can exist as the most powerful and most beautiful medium of human communication.

Traditionally, embroidery is a decorative embellishment made with a needle and thread on textiles. This exciting exhibition includes the work of 19 contemporary artists who push the boundaries of the traditional meaning of embroidery. Traditional and non traditional techniques of embroidery are used to explore historical, political, personal and humorous iconographies. Works include a bounty of color and line as found in drawn landscapes, Miro like paintings and wall and floor installations held together in space by thread. These artists offer an exciting new vision of embroidery. Curated by John Tricomi and Kathleen Driscoll.

November 21, 2009:

Winter Warmer at aceartinc.

Iwasaki's three collages will be shown as a part of member group exhibition at aceartinc.

Guy Maddin's new film the Little White Cloud that Cried will be shown from 10pm. It's the Winnipeg premiere! (Free admission)

Iwasaki has illustrated the cover of Canadian Dimension Magazine September/October issue. The magazine will be in store soon. For more information about the magazine please visit thier website http://www.canadiandimension.com/

August 08, 2008:

CD Cover Illustration for the Duhks

Iwasaki has illustrated the CD cover of a musical bank the Duhks. Their CD will be released on August 19, 2008. For more information about the band, please visit thier website http://duhks.com/

May 20, 2008:

On Publications

Iwasaki's works and articles about Iwasaki were / will be published through the following media:

ELLE Decoration UK
A two-page-spread embroidered illustration for an article, decor/interior magazine in the UK

Portland Center Stage
A brochur cover design for the 2008/2009 season, a theater company in Portland, Oregon, USAhttp://www.pcs.org/

G.Love Magazine
Appears as a featured artist, a Winnipeg-base art and culture magazine in Canada

Iwasaki has been posting blog entries in conjunction with the University of Manitoba, where he has completed his fine arts education from.
There are total of 16 current students and alumni from the univeristy who are participating to this blogging to write about their daily lives - how it is like to be
the students or graduates of the University of Manitoba. If you got some time, take a peek at thier lives at http://itsmyfuture.ca.

January 04, 2008:

Coming Up: 2 Group Shows

Iwasaki's work will be a part of group shows in Hollywood, CA., U.S.A. and Vancouver, B.C., Canada:

Iwasaki's artworks will appear/have appeared in 6 different places/media in a row! Please check out the ones you can!
Iwasaki has attended the opening reception at Giant Robot NY (New York) on Saturday, September 15th.

Iwasaki's embroidery piece is going to be published in Sunday, June 17th issue of New York Times Magazine, in a section called "The Funny Pages" as an illustration for an article. It's a weekly magazine, so
it'll be only available for the week! Search bookstores and kiosks in your village for a copy! Ready, set, go!!! - not yet until June 17th, by the way :)

Canadian Filmmaker Guy Maddin has written a nice comment about Iwasaki and his gallery
Semai Gallery for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as a part of his experiences in Winnipeg.
To read the full article, and know more about Winnipeg through Guy's eye, go to
www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/winnipeg.html

... In the afternoon I rise to visit one of my favorite art spots in this drizzly burg,
Takashi Iwasakifs Semai Gallery, oddly located within another gallery - the Keepsake - or rather in the long narrow hallway leading to the Keepsakefs washrooms.
Takashifs ingenious use of this overlooked and unwanted space is heartbreakingly charming, and the watercolours by Patrick Dunford look all the more wonderful for this curious mounting.

Sorry for not updating this website for a long time - too long! I was busy working on different projects, including my new collaborative project with a writer Aldona Dziedziejko, called
WFI & Co.

Now (as of March 29th) I'm in Chelsea, Michigan, visiting my friends, then from April 2nd till 6th, I'm going to be in Portland, Oregon to attend an opening reception for a
group exhibition, of which I'm a part of, at Motel Gallery, Portland, Oregon. If you live near the gallery, please drop by! I'll be there for the opening.

Well, this is my news for now! I'll upload more images of my work when I'm back from the trip! I've got a lot to update.

Cheers!
--- Takashi

December 13, 2006:

New Collages Added

December 15, 2006:

Triple Exposure: A Fundraiser of Multiples & Party at Platform

Three Abbies are going to be exhibited and auctioned out at Platform Centre for Photographic & Digital Arts
(121-100 Arthur St., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) for fundraising for the gallery on Dec 15, 7PM. Works by over 50 artists (three pieces each) are donated to this event.
Ticket is $40 at Platform.

Semai Gallery, directed by Iwasaki, is presenting a collection of small works by over 10 local artists at a time.
Opening reception takes place during the same hours as Ace Art Inc.'s opening reception for the Winter Warmer
(which is happening only half a block away from Semai Gallery), so you can easily check out both galleries at a night.
Get two birds with one stone, and find the best Xmas gifts ever!

Semai Gallery's affiliating gallery, Keepsakes Gallery of Winnipeg Inc., which is right next door, is also
having Christmas Openhouse from 3 - 7PM this day, featuring local musicians and their gallery members' eclectic works! This is definately worth checking too!
With this, now you can get three birds with one stone!

Ace Art Inc.'s popular annual member exhibition, the Winter Warmer is back this year again!
Over 75 members of Ace Art Inc. are participating to this art exhibition.
The display format is going to be the traditional salon style: a bunch of works hung on walls right next to each other! Most of the works on display are for sale.
Iwasaski will have three paintings in this exhibition.

Every year a lot of local artists and people who are interested in art come to the opening night. You're all invited! Join us and get together - make our winter warm! Or rather hot?!

This year's theme for the annual fundraiser for Plug In ICA, one of the most important contemporary art institutions in Winnipeg,
is Pop Art and the 60's art. Various local, national, and international artists created works for this event with a "twist" of historical pop artists' ideas,
forms, and visual elements.

Silent auction is the format of this fundraising, and bidding is already taking place on Plug In ICA's website: http://plugin.org.
Most of the works are viewable on the website, so click your mouse and go on! And be sure to attend the party for this event,
where the winners of the auction will be called, and you can see the real works in front of you, on November 25th! Chatting, looking at works, mingling..., it'll be a fun night! Come all!

Iwasaki's work Lichtenten, shown on the official poster for this event, is one of the auction items. All the items starts from $250 with an incriment of $10.

Iwasaki's award-winning painting Boomcity is reviewed by Gary Michael Dault in the Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper.
Web version of the article is also available:
see under BMO 1st Art! Exhibition 2006

October 24, 2006:

Online Interview with Claudio Parentele (The eXTra finGer)

Iwasaki is interviewed by an Italian artist/journalist Claudio Parentele. The Q&A format interview is available at his website
The eXTra finGer. Iwasaki's interview can be found in the entry on Octobe 24, 2006.

October 11, 2006:

BMO 1st ART! Exhibition 2006

Iwasaki's painting Boomcity will be exhibited as a part of a group exhibition, BMO Financial Group's
1st ART! Exhibition.

First Canadian Place Gallery
100 King Street West,Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Exhibition runsOctober 16 - November 10, 2006

September 26, 2006:

SCOUTING by NOAM GONICK at Semai Gallery

One of the most prominent young filmmakers in Canada, Noam Gonick has presented films at the Venice International Film Festival,
the Berlin Film Festival, TIFF, Sundance and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Semai Gallery, directed by Iwasaki, is currently showcasing 135 pieces of his location scouting photographs, photos taken for selecting locations for his films. Take a look at the
film locations (all in Winnipeg) of Hey, Happy! (2001) and Stryker (2004) from a filmmaker's point of view!

Iwasaki's painting Boomcity is chosen as the Manitoba Winner on BMO Financial Group 1st Art!
Invitational Student Art Competition, an anual art competition held by Bank of Montreal for the graduates from Canadian post-secondary institutions.

Total of 14 winning works (one from each province and teritory + one national winner) are going to be exhibited in the First Canadian Place Gallery
(100 King Street West, Toronto, Canada) from October 16 to November 10, 2006.
For more information, please visit the BMO Financial Group's webpage
iThe images of all winning artists works are on displayj.

New website design! Over 20 works added!

This website hasn't been updated for more than two months. Yet during the "off" period,
the design of the website has been renewed, and new works are created and added to the website. Thank you for those who had been waiting for this update patiently!

Semai Gallery , managed by Iwasaki, officially opened on July 28th, 2006!

Iwasaki started managing an art gallery, using a hallway space in the Silpit Building, located in the heart of art gallery district in Winnipeg, Canada.
Gallery's name Semai means Narrow in Japanese, as the space is very narrow.

Semai Gallery showcases a wide range of contemporary art within its narrow confines.

We are interested in project proposals from all artists, regardless of age, gender, education, or background.
For more information, please visit Semai Gallery's website:
http://takashiiwasaki.info/semaigallery/

June 06, 2006:

Exhibition at the Library in Iwasaki's Hometown

From July 3rd to 30th, an exhibition entitled "Abbies" is going to take place at the entrance hall of Shimizu Public Library in Iwasaki's
hometown, Shimizu, Hokkaido, Japan. Approximately 15 Abbies are going to be exhibited in the show.

Iwasaki's proposal for a mural painting project was accepted by the University of Manitoba Student Union (UMSU) earlier this year.
The painting called Direction is located in the tunnel which connects the University Center and the Science Complex at the University of Manitoba.

April 26, 2006:

Iwasaki interviewed by CBC Television

Iwasaki was interviewed by CBC Television (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) as a graduating fine arts student of the University of Manitoba on April 25, and
it was broadcasted nationally on April 26.

April 25, 2006:

The Ace's High Show

Three of Iwasaki's painting are going to be exhibited in a group show, the Ace's High, the University of Manitoba Fine Arts Students Annual Juried Show,
at Ace Art Inc., Winnipeg, Canada from Friday, May 5 until May 20, 2006.